With her lightning reflexes, she seized his arm and then twisted it. He screamed with pain, meaning she'd probably broken something. He kneed her in the face, but she kept hold of his arm. With seemingly little effort, she flipped him over her head. Then she sprung back to her feet.
Her vision cleared enough for her to see him lying in the sand. Before he could get back to his feet, she kicked him in the ribs. Then she turned him over. She planted her knees on his chest to keep him pinned; he gasped for air.
"It's over, Uncle Hector," she said. "I'm going to lock you in the woodshed and then tomorrow we'll go to the mainland so you can go to jail."
"Then what will you do? You're just a kid. They won't let you stay together."
"We'll figure something out." She didn't know what she would do yet, but she would think of something. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, Uncle Hector."
He smiled at her, blood dribbling from his mouth. "I ain't your uncle, kid."
"What? But I'm Lucinda, your niece."
"Lucinda is dead."
"You said-"
"They found her body a few months after she went missing. Some local pervert cut her up. He's doing life in the pen now."
"No, you're lying. You recognized me when you woke up."
"Yeah, I did think you were her at first. Thought maybe I'd died and gone to Heaven, not that I ever deserved to go there. But I came to my senses."
"You've been lying to me all along? Why?"
"This," he said. Samantha had let herself get distracted by what he was saying, so distracted, she didn't see him reach into his pocket. From that pocket he took out a tiny glass bottle. Samantha saw only a flash of rainbow-colored light a moment before the water hit her in the face.
She fell off of Mr. Delgado, onto the beach. For a moment she sat there on all fours, feeling the familiar sense of disorientation as the world seemed to swell. Her mother's clothes became even looser on her as she shrank. The boobies Helena and the boys had made fun of disappeared in moments, her chest turning flat again.
There wasn't enough in the vial to make her a toddler or baby, just a little girl like Prudence. Her instincts told her to get up, but before she could, Mr. Delgado kicked her in the midsection. She let out a groan and then flattened on the beach.
"You stupid brat," he growled. He punctuated it with another kick. "It's a good thing I already put some on the boat. The sooner I get off this rock, the better."